Review the Eligibility Requirements. If your organization appears to be eligible, complete the online application by 11:59:59pm Eastern Time on July 3, 2015. Click on the START button below to begin the process.

21st Century Solutions will accept online grant applications from Monday, May 25, 2015 at 08:00:00am Eastern Time through Friday, July 3, 2015 at 11:59:59pm Eastern Time. Final winners will be announced by December 2015.

• The organization must be a tax exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Fiscally sponsored organizations are not eligible.
• The 501(c)(3) non-profit organization must have been in existence for more than two years and have an annual operating budget of more than $300,000 (defined by the organization's most recent 990).
• The specific program/project being submitted by the organization must have been in existence and in operation for no more than two years.
• 21st Century Solutions supports high impact, innovative programs that are creating change in our local communities by solving existing problems or emerging social issues in new ways. Projects that do not demonstrate an innovative approach will not qualify.
• 21st Century Solutions will accept one entry per Tax ID number, per year. If your organization shares a Tax ID number, please coordinate internally as only one application will be accepted for consideration.
• Previous 21st Century Solutions winning organizations are eligible to re-apply for program funding after three years. Therefore, organizations awarded grants in previous cycles are not eligible to apply and will not be considered.

  Program proposals must fall within one of the primary categories below:

  Civic Engagement
  Engaging citizens to steer change and build strong local communities through service.

  Education
  Strengthening educational opportunities for students from kindergarten through college.*

  Environment
  Promoting, incorporating or innovating environmental advances in the local community.

  Jobs and Economic Empowerment
  Providing the tools and processes for individuals to obtain and maintain meaningful jobs.

  Media Arts
  Broadening access to the arts and communications via new media technologies creating technology-based learning and expression platforms.

  Technology
  Utilizing technology to educate and solve for local community challenges.

• Not Eligible to apply:
  • Labor Organizations, Causes or Programs
  • Political Organizations, Causes or Programs
  • Religious Organizations, Causes or Programs
  • Schools and Educational Institutions*

    *Unable to fund schools and their affiliated fundraising entities and foundations (including elementary, secondary and universities). Fiscally sponsored schools are not eligible.
    
    

  The organization must be physically located in and serve one of the ten NBCU Owned Television Markets as defined below:

NBC Bay Area
Terrestrial geographic viewing area in the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma in the state of California.

NBC Chicago
Terrestrial geographic viewing area in the counties of Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Jasper, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, LaPorte, LaSalle, McHenry, Newton, Porter and Will in the states of Illinois and Indiana.

NBC Connecticut
Terrestrial geographic viewing area in the state of Connecticut.

NBC Dallas-Fort Worth
Terrestrial geographic viewing area in the counties of Anderson, Bosque, Collin, Comanche, Cooke, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Earth, Ellis, Fannin, Freestone, Hamilton, Henderson, Hill, Hood, Hopkins, Hunt, Jack, Johnson, Kaufman, Lamar, Navarro, Palo Pinto, Parker, Rains, Red River, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant, Van Zandt and Wise in the state of Texas.

NBC Los Angeles
Terrestrial geographic viewing area in the counties of Esmeralda, Inyo, Kern-East, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside-West, San Bernardino and Ventura in the state of California.

NBC New York
Terrestrial geographic viewing area in the counties of Bergen, Bronx, Dutchess, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Kings, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Nassau, New York, Ocean, Orange, Passaic, Pike, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Somerset, Suffolk, Sullivan, Sussex, Ulster, Union, Warren and Westchester in the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

NBC Philadelphia
Terrestrial geographic viewing area in the counties of Atlantic, Berks, Bucks, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Chester, Cumberland, Delaware, Gloucester, Kent, Lehigh, Montgomery, Mercer, New Castle, Northampton, Philadelphia and Salem in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

NBC San Diego
Terrestrial geographic viewing area in the county of San Diego in the state of California.

NBC South Florida
Terrestrial geographic viewing area in the counties of Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe in the state of Florida.

NBC Washington D.C.
Terrestrial geographic viewing area in the counties of Alexandria City, Allegany, Arlington, Berkeley, Calvert, Charles, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fauquier, Frederick, Fulton, Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Jefferson, King George, Loudoun, Manassas Park, Manassas Park City, Mineral, Montgomery, Morgan, Page, Prince George's, Prince William, Rappahannock, Shenandoah, Spotsylvania, St. Mary's, Stafford, Warren, Washington and Westmoreland in the states of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia.

PLEASE NOTE: Applications that do not meet these Eligibility Requirements will not be considered. Incomplete applications and those containing information that has been misrepresented will not be considered.

21st Century Solutions supports high impact, innovative programs that are creating change in our local communities by solving existing problems or emerging social issues in new ways. Projects that do not demonstrate an innovative approach will not qualify.

Program proposals must fall within one of the primary categories below:

• Civic Engagement
  Engaging citizens to steer change and build strong local communities through service.

  Education
  Strengthening educational opportunities for students from kindergarten through college.*

  Environment
  Promoting, incorporating or innovating environmental practices within their organization or local community.

  Jobs and Economic Empowerment
  Providing the tools and processes for individuals to obtain and maintain meaningful jobs.

  Media Arts
  Broadening access to the arts and communications via new media technologies.

  Technology
  Utilizing technology to educate and solve for local community challenges.

• Not Eligible to apply:
  • Labor Organizations, Causes or Programs
  • Political Organizations, Causes or Programs
  • Religious Organizations, Causes or Programs
  • Schools and Educational Institutions*

  *Unable to fund schools and their affiliated fundraising entities and foundations (including elementary, secondary and universities). Fiscally sponsored schools are not eligible.

No. 21st Century Solutions is only accepting applications for existing innovative projects that have been in operation for no more than two years.

21st Century Solutions is a signature program of the NBCUniversal Foundation. The initiative will distribute $1.2 million dollars in total. The award structure is below.

The grant application process is competitive; and proposals will be assessed based on your new, innovative project as well as the overall strength of your application. You can increase the quality of your proposal by ensuring that you meet our Eligibility Requirements.

You will receive an email notification that your application was received.

Judging consists of two rounds of evaluation. In round one, an internal review panel will assess the applications and select the top finalists based on the most innovative programs, overall strength of the application as well as other criteria. The finalists will proceed to round two, where a review panel comprised of external community partners will select a winner and two runners up for each participating city.

Final winners will be announced by December 2015.